Brave New World: Expanding the UK Biosecurity State through the Winter of 2020-2021

Posted on Categories Biopolitics

Brave New World: Expanding the UK Biosecurity State through the Winter of 2020-2021, our second collection of articles on the coronavirus crisis, is available as a 203-page pdf file for a £10 donation to ASH through PayPal. As all our articles are, they are also available for free on this website.

Preface

This is the second collection of my writings on the coronavirus crisis, the first of which, COVID-19: Implementing the UK Biosecurity State, we published in September 2020; and like its predecessor it brings together 6 months of articles in a more easily-read format than the Architects for Social Housing website on which they were first published. While the first collection responded to the implementation of the regulations, programmes and technologies of the UK biosecurity state, these articles respond to their expansion through the winter of 2020-2021.

The most important development in this expansion is the UK’s vaccination programme. Beginning in December last year, this is administering an increasing number of experimental drugs, unapproved but temporarily authorised under recent changes to the Human Medicine Regulations Act, and whose development and testing have circumvented normal safety procedures on the justification that we are facing a public health emergency. Of even more concern than their contents and unknown side-effects, the UK Government is currently considering whether to make some combination of these competing pharmaceutical products either compulsory or a condition of our access to public life. This will include not just our use of public transport, our entry to shops and access to medical care and international travel, but also our ability to return to work when the current lockdown restrictions are temporarily lifted. It is my expectation that, although the UK Government has looked at the legislative barriers to making these experimental vaccines mandatory, it will first try the route of instructing and financially motivating (and, in the case of non-compliance, punishing) businesses to make them a condition of both employment for workers and access to their services for consumers. Once a sufficient number of people and businesses comply, the requirement to confirm vaccination status through some brand of digital health passport, to be produced on demand and regularly updated with whatever biosecurity measures are imposed in the future, will change our status under UK law forever.

For all these reasons, the next few weeks and months are likely to see the most important collective decision the population of the UK has made in decades, which is how 68 million people respond individually to vaccination being made a condition of our citizenship. As this decision approaches, individuals who until now have refused to comply with coronavirus-justified restrictions on their human rights and civil liberties have found that the cost of continuing to do so is greater than the restrictions themselves. This is the problem with resistance to the biosecurity state forming, as it has in the UK, around high-profile individuals with little commitment to the greater good, and who view these regulations as an infringement on their personal freedoms, lifestyles and businesses. But accepting a vaccine — like taking a PCR test, or wearing a mask, or uploading the Test and Trace app, or complying with contact tracing, or observing restrictions — is not a personal decision. Each act of compliance contributes to the consensus on which the UK biosecurity state is progressively removing our collective freedom. Historically, totalitarian states have operated not by mass enforcement but by the coerced or willing collaboration of individuals, businesses and institutions. Resistance to the UK biosecurity state must begin to take on a properly collective form if it is to succeed. Non-compliance with its regulations, programmes and technologies will come from those of us who do so for our collective freedom, whatever the cost to us personally.

From the hundreds of e-mails and comments I have received in response to these articles, it’s my impression that a large minority of the UK population is doing just that. As the gap between our individual experience of this manufactured crisis and the Government’s increasingly dictatorial response to it has grown more disproportionate, more violent and more destructive, so more and more people have come to accept that something is rotten in the state of the UK. This has in turn led more people to ask what ends are being served by this unrelenting assault on us by our Government, its state apparatus and its corporate partners. I hope the articles in this collection will help readers to arrive at their own answer to this question, and that it is one that will inspire them to resist.

As with the first collection, these articles have been widely read, with 85,000 readers visiting them on our website, making 225,000 readers who have read my articles on the coronavirus crisis over the past year. In grateful recognition of this, I have included an appendix of readers’ comments on the articles in this latest collection. I do this partly to try to convince any publisher with the courage to print them that there is a large audience for analysis of what is being done under the cloak of the coronavirus crisis. But, in addition, these comments show that many readers have been isolated by their convictions, even from their family and closest friends; and I hope this appendix will help show to each other just how many of us do not believe the blatant and crude lies we are being told, and are committed to resisting the prison that is being built around, between and within us. It is my conviction — and also my hope — that individual acts of civil disobedience to the regulations, programmes and technologies of the UK biosecurity state, repeated without fear by tens of millions of citizens across the UK, will collectively win the civil war we’re beginning to realise has been declared against us. If you do not know already, I hope this collection of articles will help you decide which side you are on, and that you will join us in fighting for all our freedoms.

Contents

Preface

1. Bonfire of the Freedoms: The Unlawful Exercise of Powers Conferred by the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 

    1. Government by Decree
    2. Ultra Vires the Public Health Act
    3. The Moral Rights of Government

2. The Betrayal of the Clerks: UK Intellectuals in the Service of the Biosecurity State

    1. Medicine
    2. Education
    3. Letters

3. Bread and Circuses: Who’s Behind the Oxford Vaccine for COVID-19?

    1. Doctor June Raine
    2. Professor Andrew Pollard
    3. Professor Jonathan Van Tam
    4. Making the World Safe for Vaccines

Addendum: How safe is the AstraZeneca vaccine?

4. Bowling for Pfizer: Who’s Behind the BioNTech Vaccine for COVID-19?

    1. From Development to Approval
    2. Pfizer Inc.
    3. The Conspiracists
    4. Reasonable Doubt

Addendum: RT-PCR Test Protocols

5. Five Stories Under Lockdown

    1. Yesterday all the past
    2. To-morrow, perhaps, the future
    3. But to-day the struggle

Addendum: How the Poor Die

6. Our Default State: Compulsory Vaccination for COVID-19 and Human Rights Law

    1. Qualifying Human Rights
    2. Sectioning the Public
    3. Future Legislation
    4. A Living Laboratory
    5. Pathologising Dissent

Addendum: Why did so many German doctors join the Nazi Party early?

7. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Manufacturing the Crisis

    1. Laying the Foundations
    2. Competing Causes of Death
    3. Evidence for Lockdown Deaths
    4. Recovering the Dead
    5. Overall Mortality in the ‘Epidemic’
    6. What Happened to the Excess Deaths?
    7. Conclusions

8. Qui Bono? The COVID-19 ‘Conspiracy’

    1. What We Know
    2. The Conspiracy Paradox
    3. The Power of Nightmares
    4. Capitalising on the Crisis
    5. Disruption and Redeployment
    6. The Emerging Ideology
    7. Biosecurity as Cultic Practice
    8. The Authoritarian State
    9. Brave New World
    10. The Time Given to Us

Appendix 1: When the House Burns: Giorgio Agamben and the Coronavirus Crisis

Appendix 2: Readers’ Comments

Architects for Social Housing is a Community Interest Company (no. 10383452). Although we occasionally receive minimal fees for our design work, the majority of what we do is unpaid and we have no source of public funding. If you would like to support our work, including the six months of research and writing that went into this collection, please make a donation through PayPal:

 

28 thoughts on “Brave New World: Expanding the UK Biosecurity State through the Winter of 2020-2021”

  1. Pingback: Brave New World: Expanding the UK Biosecurity State through the Winter of 2020-2021 – Architects for Social Housing (ASH) | Declaration Of Opinion

  2. I admire your commitment to the struggle, but it needs to reach a wider audience. A more influencial audience. Most of the people who follow you and who share your work are the converted.

    If you could try to influence human rights lawyers, politicians, trades unions around the world instead. Anyone with influence to help turn the direction.

    Right now, I read your content and I feel despair. I want to die. ‘The Biosecurity State’ – a terrifying term. How am I, as an individual, supposed to fight against this?

    We’ve seen over the last year the deficit of solidarity and critical thought. It’s why we’re still here. In Israel the unvaccinated are banned from entering shops and other premises. The unthinkable is happening.

    I don’t know what the solution is. My only comfort right now is the thought of euthanasia, rather than to become a pharma-owned serf whose movements are controlled and tracked by technology.

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    1. E,

      It is an exceptionally frustrating situation for sure, to say the very least, but if it’s of any comfort, there are others who, like you, are appalled by the present situation. It’s a small consolation, I know, but a consolation nevertheless.

      None of this would be happening if society hadn’t embraced technology. I like Simon Elmer’s work, but I don’t agree with him that it’s all about capitalism, money, and corporate greed. It’s part of the story, but it’s not the whole story. The human civilization moves from stage to stage. Perhaps we have reached a stage where humans collectively (not you or me, but much/most of the public) want to fuse/merge with technology, even if it means that we end up serving it. We’re already doing it; just look at the obsession with gadgets, smartphones, and social networks. That’s the big paradox. It’s a paradox that the protesters marching against lockdowns and the “new normal” are brandishing their smartphones; they don’t realize it, but in a way they’ve also contributed to this situation with their embrace of the digitalisation of their lives. In a way, we all have. It’s not that we’ve become dependent on technology; worse, we’ve become subservient to it. Technology has become the end and not the means. Walking around with a “digital passport” that shows your vaccination might simply be another manifestation of the latest stage of the development of the human civilization. (Of course, this does not contradict the fact that there are entities that stand to benefit from these developments – there always are.)

      Do I like this latest stage we’ve reached? I positively abhor it. I have no idea what to do about it, though. I wonder if anything can be done at all – for society, that is. Perhaps the trick is to do something for yourself. Stay free and true to yourself. That might mean saying “no” to the vaccine, for example. Be free inside, even if the outside looks like a prison. You might be lost to society, but keeping your spirit free and independent will ensure that you’re at least not lost to yourself.

      All the best.

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      1. Very wise. In short I was / still sort of am a big fan of technology. The problem here is the lack of transparency & the centralised control of what is being implemented. People that will be willing to fuse are being misled into the ramifications of such, as it is with almost every other aspect of current situation.

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    2. Hello E, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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  3. Just found this blog. Brilliant writing. Thanks for articulating the problem so well. Have shared it round with interested parties.

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    1. Hello D, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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    1. It’s also available for a £10 donation as a pdf (link at the bottom of the post), or for £30 as a print-on-demand book here: https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/simon-elmer/brave-new-world/paperback/product-enwe45.html?fbclid=IwAR0zg4vh12bJiAq9G9g1uHJ0BYaYRPmXVP3Ev03IphKySG_rC-v5JpxY-ZI&page=1&pageSize=4.

      Readers who are blind or partially sighted have asked about e-readers. I’m not familiar with the software, but if you send me some information – or better yet instructions – I will look into it and do my best to make the book available in that format.

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      1. One option for those who need audio reading would be to save the articles to the Pocket app and then use the app’s voice-to-text reader. It is very simple and user friendly. But that won’t solve Joe-Joe’s problem — I think you’d need this to be self published on Amazon in order for it to be accessible via Kindle.

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      2. Another reply from me! I transferred the PDF to my Kindle but the text was too small to read and the formatting was off. I converted the PDF to ePub using the Calibre tool but it didn’t really work either.

        Sorry to be a pain, but if you could have a go at converting the original file (Word document?) into an ePub, that would be great. But no worries if you can’t. I will just try and read the articles on the blog.

        Also, is this the second collection? If so, can you post a link to the first collection please?

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      3. Hello Joe, the pdfs were made specifically for people who don’t want to read the articles on a digital screen. I’ve never used a Kindle, so don’t understand how that’s preferable to reading the articles from the ASH website.

        The first collection, COVID-19: Implementing the UK Biosecurity State, is available on the same terms as the second collection. But all the articles are available individually on our website.

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      4. Hi Simon
        I’d be happy to contribute by making both sets of articles into ebook formats for you. Could you email me and we can discuss offline?
        Cheers
        Pablo

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    2. Hello Chris, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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  5. I just donated to ASH. I would like to get the the pdfs for “Brave New World” and “Cui Bono” (and anything else that I can get regarding Covid that you have done). I found you as I was looking for anything in English I could on Giorgio Agamben’s writings in 2020. “Cui Bono” is the best analysis I have seen anywhere. It seems that you are one of a tiny number of people on the left who have not abandoned critical thinking.
    Thanks so much for your work!

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    1. Hello Tom, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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    2. Hello Geordie Lassie, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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  12. I would like to have a brief chat/telecon with the person who is driving this non-compliance initiative. I have some thoughts on a strategy that might strengthen and ultimately put control in the hands of the people.

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    1. Hello Mark, you might be interested in my new book, The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State, which I’ve been working on since February this year and published today. It’s available as a print-on-demand book in hardback and paperback editions (with an e-book forthcoming). Please click on this link for the contents page, my preface and purchase options. Best wishes. https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2022/09/28/the-road-to-fascism-for-a-critique-of-the-global-biosecurity-state/

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  13. Pingback: 9. Humanity in Dark Times (The Road to Fascism: For a Critique of the Global Biosecurity State) – architectsforsocialhousing

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